At 1 a.m. on 4 June 2016, Gustavo German, a doctoral student in bio- medicine at Harvard University, heard a knock at his door. It was three police officers. They explained that a doctor with Harvard’s health service had issued an order to take German to a hospital for a psychi- atric evaluation to see whether he should be committed, even against his will. Surprised, German said he was fine. One po- lice officer put on black gloves. His parents, who were visiting, tried to persuade the po- lice to stop, saying they were not concerned about their son. The officers made German lie down on a stretcher, and an ambulance carried him to a hospital. He was back home within hours, however; a psychiatrist had found nothing out of the ordinary. But German was trauma- tized, he says, and “my mom was distraught.” She couldn’t sleep for 5 days, he says. Soon after, German says a Harvard official told him he shouldn’t return to his laboratory. Court records reveal that the police had received their order because, for months, German’s mentor—prominent biomedical

How a dispute at Harvard led to a grad student’s forced mental examand an extraordinary restraining order against a prominent scientist